Sallie Krawcheck Invests in Companies that Invest in Women

After years with Citi and Bank of America, Sallie Krawcheck realized she wanted to invest in women and purchased women's business network 85 Broads to do so. Learning from the women of the organization, she saw a powerful opportunity that could help women even more than networking events and leadership training.

Sallie has teamed up with Pax World Management to create the first of its kind mutual fund in the United States that invests in the companies highest-rated in advancing women’s leadership. She attributes to move to the women of her network, which is renaming itself to Ellevate, and their desire to invest outside of themselves.

“They very much, by joining the network, want to invest in themselves,” Ms. Krawcheck said in aNew York Times interview. “But a very significant number of them want to invest behind other women.”

Leading companies in the Fund include PepsiCo and Xerox, which have Indra K. Nooyi and MAKER Ursula Burns, serving as their respective chief executives and Chairmen. Proctor & Gamble's 43.6% female portion of global management and Avon's 38% of top executives earn them positions of leadership in the Fund as well.

Overall of the Fund's companies, women hold 31% of board seats and 24% of executive management positions, while the global average is 11% for each.

Officially called thePax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, the fund sites research that companies with higher portion of women in senior roles tend to perform better than companies with less gender diversity. It is the big step in Krawcheck's “move from advocacy of women to the smart business of real investment in women.”